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The official blog for the U.S. Medicare program. For more information, please visit www.medicare.gov

Lung Cancer Awareness Month

Medicare is ready to help you quit smoking.

About one out of every six cancer deaths in the U.S. comes from lung cancer. Each year, nearly 200,000 Americans are told they have lung cancer and more than 90,000 people die from this disease. Smoking causes 80 to 90 percent of lung cancer cases, so many of these lung cancer deaths can be prevented.

If you haven’t been diagnosed with an illness caused or complicated by tobacco use, you can get 8 face-to-face smoking cessation counseling sessions during a 12-month period. You pay nothing for these counseling sessions, as long as you get them from a qualified doctor or another Medicare provider.